New Valuation Tool Is Launched (9/04)

Boxwood's joint venture with First American has produced its initial product, a valuation tool for small business loans and small commercial mortgages. In the fiercely competitive small business lending segment, banks and non-bank lenders alike need to price loans aggressively and make commitments swiftly in order to maintain and grow their customer base.

The collateral valuation product of First American Commercial Real Estate Services, or Indexed Value Report ("IVR"), helps expedite the loan origination and review process. The IVR, available for most metropolitan areas and counties around the U.S., produces a market value that is based on an indexing model that has been fully redeveloped by Boxwood.

The new model studies the current and historical relationship between publicly-recorded sales prices of properties to their assessed values at the time of sale, taking into account the value of the property, timing of sale, and the property type. The IVR is presently utilized by more than a dozen commercial lenders.